Since Professor Kennedy of Queens University, Canada, reported in 1986 that skin cancer can be treated by application of ALA and light irradiation (e.g., see Nonpatent Document 1), there have been reports on methods for diagnosis and treatment using ALA for lesions at various sites, etc. For example, a tumor diagnosing agent developed out of the finding that in vivo administration of ALA, a derivative thereof, or a salt of these (ALAs) causes accumulation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which is induced by ALAs, in the cancer and thus a fluorescence emission is caused in response to light irradiation (e.g., see Patent Document 1), and a tumor diagnosing agent wherein ALAs are administered in vivo to detect PpIX that emits fluorescence in the serum or urine in response to light irradiation (e.g., see Patent Document 2) are proposed. It is known regarding a brain tumor that the tumor site can be identified by orally administering ALAs and subjecting the affected area to light irradiation after the craniotomy. This is based on that because the blood-brain barrier at the site leading to the tumor has been destroyed by the tumor, PpIX is considered to accumulate in a tumor selective manner even by the oral administration. With regard to other cancers, it has been reported that diagnosis can be made by a direct application of ALAs for skin cancer and by holding a solution of ALAs in the mouth for oral cancer.
Further, as for bladder, it is known that bladder cancer can be detected by filling a sensitizer solution containing ALAs into the bladder via the urethra, and then by conducting light irradiation after a certain period of time to observe fluorescence with a cystoscope (e.g., see Nonpatent Document 2). Moreover, formulated drugs that can be used for diagnosis or treatment using such as ALA esters among the ALAs are proposed for the purpose of, for example, shortening the retention time after bladder instillation (e.g., see Patent Document 3). These detection methods exhibit a higher detection sensitivity to cancers compared to other detection methods for bladder cancer, for example, as compared to the endoscopic diagnosis under white light. Therefore, these detection methods can be said as being effective in improving the enucleation rate in endoscopic surgeries.
In addition, there is proposed a hair restorer which contains as the active components one or more compounds selected from 5-aminolevulinic acid, a salt thereof and an ester derivative of these, along with an iron compound (e.g., see Patent Document 4) and a preventive/ameliorating drug for skin roughness (e.g., see Patent Document 5).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 2731032
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2006-124372
Patent Document 3: Published Japanese translation of PCT international publication No. 2002-512205
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 3810018
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent No. 3991063
Nonpatent Document 1: J. C Kennedy, R. H Pottier and D C pross, Photodynamic therapy with endogeneous protoprophyrin IX: basic principles and present clinical experience, J. Photochem., Photobiol. B: Biol., 6 (1990) 143-148
Nonpatent Document 2: Hirofumi Inoue, Hisashi Karashima, Masayuki Kamata, Taro Shuin, Mutsumi Kurabayashi, Yuji Otsuki, Photodynamic diagnosis of bladder cancer using fluorescent cystoscope by bladder instillation of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), Journal of The Japanese Urological Association, Vol. 97, pp. 719-729